Approaches to Teaching the Novels of James Fenimore Cooper
- Editors: Stephen Carl Arch, Keat Murray
- Pages: 228
- Published: 2022
- ISBN: 9781603294843 (Paperback)
- ISBN: 9781603294201 (Hardcover)
“Brings back into view one of the most significant American authors of the nineteenth century.”
—Shirley Samuels, Cornell University
A cosmopolitan author who spent nearly a decade in Europe and was versed in the works of his British and French contemporaries, James Fenimore Cooper was also deeply concerned with the America of his day and its history. His works embrace themes that have dominated American literature since: the frontier; the oppression of Native Americans by Europeans; questions of race, gender, and class; and rugged individualism, as represented by figures like the pirate, the spy, the hunter, and the settler. His most memorable character, Natty Bumppo, has entered into American popular culture.
The essays in this volume offer students bridges to Cooper’s novels, which grapple with complex moral issues that are still crucial today. Engaging with film adaptations, cross-culturalism, animal studies, media history, environmentalism, and Indigenous American poetics, the essays offer new ways to bring these novels to life in the classroom.
Introduction (1)
PART ONE: MATERIALS
Works (13)
Biographies (15)
Selected Recent Criticism (15)
The Instructor’s Library (19)
Filmography (23)
Critical Overview of Selected Feature Films (25)
Additional Resources (33)
PART TWO: APPROACHES
History and Culture
America’s Historical Romance: The Last of the Mohicans to Hamilton (39)
Cooper’s Revolutionary Novels: Surface Reading and Grotesque American History (48)
Teaching The Deerslayer through Historical and Critical Debates (58)
Cross-Culturalism in The Last of the Mohicans (69)
Natural Environments
Collective Inquiry and Animal Studies in The Pioneers (80)
Environmental Apocalypse and The Crater (92)
Indigenous American Poetics in The Prairie (100)
Language and Form
Interactive Identities: The Last of the Mohicans in English Literature Courses for Nonmajors (109)
Applying Pedagogies of Recovery to The Pioneers (119)
Narrative and Survival Strategies in Satanstoe (128)
Mary Monson, Girl Detective: Cooper as a Mystery Writer (136)
Language Diversity in Cooper’s Novels (144)
Visuality and Cinema
Wyandotté and American Scenery (153)
Cooper’s Early Work in a Media History Context (162)
The Social Power of Sentimental Lament: The Last of the Mohicans and Mann’s Film Adaptation (169)
Teaching The Last of the Mohicans through Cinematic Adaptation (178)
Cooper and Adaptation as Layered Cultural History (186)
Notes on Contributors (195)
Survey Participants (199)
Works Cited (201)
